Charlie Magdaleno: Blog

  Actually, no, she's not a girl- she's a woman.  And not just any woman, either.  She's the kind of woman who can throw off a metronome when she walks past it.  The kind of woman whose charm and wit would leave James Bond shaken and stirred.  The kind of woman who's smile can break you down so badly, you forget what your own name is.  And the worst part is is that she wouldn't even notice.  Not because she's so oblivious to her own pain-inducing greatness and beauty, but because it would take one hell of an ego to even consider she gave you enough thought to get that far.

  She's as bright as they come, but she doesn't let that get in the way of her desire to roll up her sleeves and get her hands dirty.  This woman is a bona fide globe-trotter, and I don't mean a tourist.  She'll trade dinner on the rooftops of Paris for the slums of Peru any day- it's all about making a mark for her.  Thankfully, it's a mark of goodwill.  Still, as altruistic as she is, her truest allegiance is to the will of her heart and the plans in her mind; and you can either get with the program or get left behind.

  As you can imagine, the prospect alone of talking to her is nearly as nerve-wracking as the actual action.  And as can be expected from a backbone like mine, for all the years that I've known her, I've been intimidated to say the least.

  That is, until today.  No, today was a different story.  Today, I told myself I was no longer going to be rattled in her presence.  I was no longer going to aim to please her outside of gentlemanly consideration.  I was going to have the confidence to simply be myself, and treat her as my equal and as my friend.

  And you know what?  It worked.  It actually worked.  Any anxiety I may have had over interacting with her is out the window- and even after all these years all it took was a few words and the few seconds to process them.

  I would say that this is the only time this has ever happened to me, but it's not.

  While I was working on my current record, I found myself falling into a funk.  I was creatively stifled, anxious, frustrated, and depressed.  I wanted so badly for this project to be perfect, and for my performance to be perfect.  This meant re-tracking, editing, over and over again just so I could call it "not good enough", throw it away and start the process over.  To make things even more difficult, the more I worked at the project, the worse I got and the worse it got.

  So, thanks to my creative partner Cory Alexander; who's mental endurance, kindness, and ability to deal with me know no bounds; I was able to just say to myself- "Forget about getting it perfect.  Forget about getting it exactly how you hear it in your head.  Don't worry about hitting the right notes, and worry even less about hitting the wrong ones.  Just.  Have.  Fun."  And with that, I started to enjoy working on the project again.  I started to be fulfilled by it again.  I started to have fun again, and quite honestly, I can't tell you what a difference it has made and will make on the outcome of the record.

  The point of all of this is to stress the power of having the right mindset and sending yourself the right messages.  For better or worse, nothing and no one leaves a bigger impact on who you are and how you perform more than your own psyche; and for better or worse, nothing and no one leaves a bigger impact on your psyche than you.

  It's like that old adage says, "whether you think you can or you can't, you're probably right."

  Personally, I'm definitely feeling like I can these days.